How Do I Optimize My Legal Department?

Mitratech - Connecting People, Knowledge, Process

There are many departments and functions that comprise the governance, risk management and
compliance (GRC) capability. The legal department and related functions is one of the most critical
components. Optimizing the legal department is an important step toward an integrated GRC capability.

CURRENT STATE

Some legal departments function at a lower level of
maturity and rely on individual "heroics" to get the job
done. While this approach may work in the short term,
it can also lead to negative consequences including:
increased costs, lack of visibility, confusion and others.

View Future State Current State Puzzle

Lack of
Visibility Costs Confusion Information Silos Complexity Redundancy

Lack of visibility

Legal department that lack visibility into operations cannot effectively evaluate risks, opportunities or performance. They have trouble making informed decisions; determining the root causes of problems; and understanding how time, effort, and money are being spent.

Costs

Without the proper means to measure both internal and external expenses, legal departments struggle to understand resource allocation and eliminate waste. It becomes extremely difficult to develop ROI calculations for law firm spend, to implement the right cost containment program, and to measure value.

Confusion

A lack of standardization leads to confusion across operations, resulting in duplication of effort and poor exception handling. Without the right processes in place, task management is strongly lacking and there is a higher risk of crucial activities falling through the cracks.

Information Silos

With information trapped in silos, department team members cannot leverage work product – leading to duplication, missed opportunities, and poor time utilization. In addition, reporting across functions at the executive level is near impossible without a centralized and collaborative workspace.

Complexity

Ad-hoc processes naturally bring an undesired level of complexity that weighs down or disrupts operations, increases costs and cycle times, and promotes general frustration among individual contributors.

Redundancy

Redundancy clearly wastes resources and complicates operations. The results include inconsistent work product, unnecessary capital expenditures and headcount, and wasted time that could better be spent promoting the department’s mission.